MANILA, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.7 percent in 2017, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia announced on Tuesday.

Pernia said the performance of the Philippine economy "remains on target," hitting a solid 6.6 percent growth rate in the last quarter of 2017.

"This stable performance brings our full-year growth in 2017 to 6.7 percent - a strong finish that keeps our position as one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia," Pernia said.

Pernia said the growth in the fourth quarter was backed by robust growth of 14.3 percent in public spending which was an increase from 4.5 percent in the previous year.

"That was really the main driver, public spending. This is very much in line with the government's commitment to timely delivery of public services and social protection programs, including assistance to victims of typhoons as well as in the Marawi conflict, public scholarship programs, and health expenditure programs," Pernia said.

Also on the expenditure side, Pernia said external demand improved with growth in exports of goods bouncing back to 20.2 percent in the fourth quarter from 17.2 percent in the third quarter.

According to the data, domestic demand growth also strengthened to 7.3 percent in the fourth quarter in 2017 from 6.4 percent in the third quarter.

On the supply side, Pernia said the Philippines recorded improvements in utilities and mining. "Growth in services was supported by transport and communications, trade, and public administration, defense, and social security," he said.

He said agriculture recorded 2.4 percent growth in the fourth quarter, having recovered from the decline of -1.3 percent in the same period last year.

With these developments, he said the Philippines moves forward in 2018 with even stronger determination to accelerate growth to hit the target range of 7 to 8 percent.

Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, for his part, said he expects the economy "to expand faster this year now that the Duterte administration's programs to modernize public infrastructure and sustain the growth momentum have started falling into place."